Friday, November 2, 2012

On October 20, MAPA Director Dylan Dietz attended a special
reception at the home of Trinity Animation President Jim Lammers.The party was a public celebration of
Trinity’s animation depicting the studio's visualization of a proposed C7 Corvette design for 2014.The animation went viral on YouTube,
exceeding 400,000 hits in August.

This all began in November of 2011, after Jalopnik and other
sites leaked details of the design, which had previously been kept secret.Trinity designed their animation based on
what they thought the car would look like, employing the company’s trademark
realism.

We caught up with Lammers who shared a few words on the
success with MAPA.

MAPA: What does this amazing social media response mean for
Trinity Animation?

LAMMERS: For starters we are actually animating a car
project now, in fact a Corvette related car project. It's our first commercial
car work and we're really glad to work on it. This is a company that makes
retro bodies and puts them on modern cars, so people can have classic looks
without giving up any modern safety or performance.

MAPA: What can you tell us about the challenges that went
into designing your Corvette spot?

LAMMERS: The challenges were particularly unique compared to
our usual work because the target was unknown. So we weren't modeling something
we could see, we were trying to build something from little glimpses and hints.
It was a real challenge and a lot of the time it seemed like we were in the
mode of a car designer ourselves. That's a big part of why it took so long;
there was no way to know if or when we had it "right."

MAPA: We heard that you had some criticism. What was that
about?

LAMMERS: YouTube criticism is unhelpful, people there seem
to delight in simply saying silly things, or one-upping each other in
vulgarity. I never read it. But we did get some thoughtful and constructive
thoughts on the corvetteforum.com site, which was fun.

I think our car is a good first impression of what it might
look like and the ONLY 3D reveal of the car to date.

It's easy to make one drawing of one angle, like car
magazines do. But it's much more rewarding for the public to see the car moving
and to see it from all angles! I am fairly certain the final GM design will be
better and sleeker but we did the best to combine Jalopnik's predictions with
our own best guesses to make something close enough to be interesting.

MAPA: What's going down with Archer?You shared a sneak peek at the party but what
can you share with Trinity fans?

LAMMERS: We are halfway through season 4 production and
we've had a chance to preview a few of the early episodes. Adam Reed continues
to shock, delight and entertain with his scripts. It seems like he has huge
amounts of new places to take this cast and this show. I don't know how he can keep
the funny turned up to 11 show after show but he does!

MAPA: Tell us about your musical contributions to your work.

Jim Lammers on the Gibson

LAMMERS: I really liked being able to put my own music on
the Corvette video and having hundreds of thousands of people hear my work. I
wrote something I thought would make good anticipatory "film score"
like music, and then played guitar, cello, drums, bass and keyboards to put all
those parts together. I only did the cello on the opening jaws-like segment as
the sun shines into the opening doors of the warehouse. But the other parts I
played straight through. I wish I had time to have done it in a proper studio
for better fidelity (particularly with the drums) but I wanted to get the video
done and out before it was old news!

MAPA:Thanks Jim for
your responses and all your warm hospitality.

If you want to go behind the scenes of Trinity’s C7 concept
animation with High Res Wallpaper Images of this car, click here.

This month, we catch up with
MAPA Director Arie Monroe and
her personal adventures in becoming a Hollywood animator.

For those of you who don't know, Arie took her amazing
talents to Los Angeles recently...not an easy thing for a girl leaving her
family here in Kansas City. But Arie says she plans to learn what she can from the big
boys and then use those skills back here at home.

For now, she learns dozen of new faces each day as a
caricature artist at the Universal Studios theme park.(Word is she is also moonlighting as a
character clean-up artist for an undisclosed studio. She can't say where
MAP-Animaniacs but trust us when we say it's a big one.)

"I love drawing caricatures," Arie says. "You
really get to interact with a variety of people and personalities and you learn
to add their personality traits to the drawing of them. They really enjoy when
you pull out their personality in the illustration. ...Animation is like acting
with a pencil."

We asked Arie to give us the lowdown on her California
adventure.

"My work has started evolving again, Monroe says."I felt like when I was in Kansas City
my work became stagnant. So this is good."

Here is the rest of
the interview:

MAPA: How has life changed for you since moving west?

MONROE: Well one of the major changes is I went from a
freelance artist to a full time job. Currently I work as a Caricature artist at
Universal studios while I look for animation work with my main focus being on
character design, story and clean up. I had a friend that recommended my work
and I got a little freelance stuff which I do after I get home from my other
full time job. I am trying to get myself stable and soon I want to start updating
my blog with new work on a regular basis.

I am also preparing for the CTN Expo. I am looking forward
to it because I get to talk to studios directly and hand out samples of my
work. Hopefully it will lead to a higher paying animation gig.

MAPA: Have you changed as an artist?

MONROE: My work has started evolving again. I felt like when
I was in Kansas City my work became stagnant.So this is good. The freelance is challenging
because I have to think in a very different way from doing spot illustration, sketch
cards and caricatures. I am also looking forward to actually animating more.

My roommate is also an animator and we are working on a
project together.

MAPA: Tell us a little about what your day is like going
from one job to another.

MONROE: I love drawing caricatures. You really get to
interact with a variety of people and personalities and you learn to add their
personality traits to the drawing of them. They really enjoy when you pull out
their personality in the illustration. It’s
not just about drawing what you see but also about drawing what you feel: a
very important key to animation.This
allows me to put that into practice. Animation is like acting with a pencil.Today a friend at work referred to
an animator as a really shy actor. In fact many of the people I work with are
also aspiring animators and do a variety of art styles including abstract
painting and fine arts.

MAPA: How's the commute?

MONROE: I recently bought a bike. Because Cali is pretty warm year
round you can get a lot of places on a bike. It’s cool because I can do
everything I do with a car. You can really deck out a bike with baskets and
lights and mirrors so you can travel around town and do your grocery shopping.
I am getting a lot of exercise. My commute to work is about 45 minutes but I
hope with training I can get it down to 30 minutes. Buses also have bike racks
so sometimes at night if I don't feel safe I can get on the bus for
part of my ride home.

MAPA: What are you learning about the process of animation?

MONROE: I am learning a lot about the studio work flow.

I currently do character clean up.A person designs characters on model and then
I clean up the roughs so that they can have time to do other things quickly. It
is challenging balancing both to be honest. Sometimes they want
artwork literally the next day or two and because I work full time I
have to try and get it done as fast as I can.

Last week, I pulled an all-nighter to finish the project by
morning and get it turned in and then slept 2 hours before going to Universal
for work.

Because I am freelancing, I don't have to go to the studio.I just email in the project or Fed Ex if
that is necessary.

I feel like I have a lot to learn though.I have a mentor that has been coaching me
through some things.

Overall I am enjoying the adventure of being out west. On my
next day off I am planning to visit Little Tokyo for sushi and shopping with
some co workers/friends. It’s been fun seeing new things and meeting new
people.